Without Flight
by castiel-the-pizza-man
Summary: Stephan/Jack. Throughout their adventures together on the HMS Surprise, Jack and Stephen realize that they need each other more than they thought possible.


**Title:** Without Flight  
**Author:** castiel-thepizzaman  
**Pairing:** eventual Stephan/Jack  
**Rating:** NC-17 or M overall, this chapter is PG.  
**Warnings:** None. I do not own M&C.

**A/N: **Wow, do I suck at summaries.

I honestly couldn't help myself... I was typing for my Supernatural Fan fiction while watching Master and Commander. It was my favorite movie as a child, I even read all the books, though I'm sure at that age I didn't really understand then that well. Now that I'm older I realized I totally shiped Jack and Stephan.

Anyways, welcome to my guilty little pleasure.

Soo... here we goo.

Chapter One

Sudden pain spiked through his body and Jack fought against the pressure that was bearing down on him, his body writhing against the cloth covered table, feet kicking at his invisible foes. A force pushed down on his leg, keeping it still but adding to the torment that wracked through him.

"Jack, Jack?" A soothing voice called out to him and he felt a cold hand against his temple, pushing back some stray hair off his forehead. "Can you hear me?"

Opening his eyes slowly it took the captain a few moment to focus on the face swimming above him. Short brown hair and rounded glasses, framed the face, a white shirt underneath a vest, the sleeves rolled up but still stained with blood. "Stephen?" Jack tried to push himself up only to cringe as he moved his leg, nearly falling back to unconsciousness from the pain.

"Stay with me, Jack." The doctor commanded, moving away from his friends face and back down to the wound in his leg.

Staring up at the wooden ceiling above him, Jack tried to obey, fighting off the impending darkness just beyond his vision. His mind wearily piecing together the memories he was missing. The fight and the impact of cannons, wood blowing around his ships. A deaf ringing in his ears as a cannon ball flew past his left ear, missing it by just mere inches and burying itself into the foremast. Wood traveled through the air from the powerful blow, imbedding deep in the skin of Jack's left leg.

A small jerk from the doctor and a slice of the knife had the captain arching his back off the table in pain, a muffled yell hidden behind clenched jaws. "The ship?" He panted, when his jaw would loosen enough to talk.

"Pullings' got her to safety." Stephan replied, shoving the edge of a wooden spoon into the man's mouth to ease the tension on his teeth.

There were a few moments of tense silence the rocking of the boat bringing some sense of familiarity to both men. This was their home, had been for years, this was the thing they fought for, worked for, and lived for. So this ship could continue sailing the ocean obeying the orders of their country. It contained their family, the people they fought with and the few that died where honored above all.

The tightening of a tourniquet caused Jack to groan and bite against the wood, resisting the urge to bang the back of his head against the table. His hand moved along his body, fingers resting on the leather feeling the way it pinched his skin stopping the blood flowing to his leg. His hands dropped from the painful object and hit the table with a dull thud. He trusted his friend, he trusted Stephen with his life, but there was just something about being on the operating table when he was the one surveying the men that would go under the doctor's knife.

Stephan let out a small chuckle and Jack knew it was in hopes of calming him down. "Don't worry, you'll still be able to play your fiddle."

"Killick will greatly appreciate that." He tried to joke back before he felt another pull on the wound underneath the tourniquet resulting in a muffled groan of pain.

Stephan smiled, but it was strained, his lips pulling back from his teeth and never reaching his eyes. Jack felt fingers moving against his skin, and the numbing sensation if metal tongs being slipped into a small incision. Nimble fingers grasped the sharp piece of large wood imbedded into the captain's skin. The smile had disappeared from Stephan's face, transforming into a mask of concentration as he began to work, attempting to save Captain Jack's life.

"Padeen." Stephan murmured and there was a sharp movement before darkness overtook Jack once more.

* * *

Spending time on land was a rare occasion for Jack, and when he did, he made sure to do things he would enjoy on his time off. Mainly, going to see music. It was something he enjoyed, the way the instruments flowed together, creating perfect harmony even though each was different. Each played different notes and each sounded and looked different. But they worked effortlessly together, seamlessly, to create something better. Jack often thought a ship should act much the same way. The captain the conductor, the crew the instruments, working together for a common goal. The goal of success.

Sitting in the chair he listened to the music, a small smile turning up the corner of his lips, tapping his hand onto his knee rather loudly in time with the song. Much to the displeasure of the man sitting next to him. A pale skinned man with short brown hair who was dressed in an impeccable outfit, giving away that he was a rather wealthy man with an ascot tied around his neck. He was wearing wireframe glasses and his eyes flashed with annoyance at the man next to him.

Jack didn't know it at the time, but that man sitting next to him in the theater would change his life.

* * *

Waking up was hard, all the noises seemed too loud and the lights too bright. Nothing seemed clear to him, the world seemed blurred and the noises seemed to reverberate before they reached his ears. Out of sync, out of place. A massive headache roared behind his eyes and he forced his lids to close, surrounding him in the comforting darkness he had stayed in for so long.

The noise of a chair scraping next to him pulled him back to reality, out of the comfort of the darkness and into the light of pain. He forced his eyes open as he felt the blanket pulled off his torso and saw Stephan sitting in the chair, looking down at the bandage on his leg. A red spot of blood had begun to show up of the white cloth and the doctor went about removing the bandage before he felt the watchful gaze upon him. Glancing up a smile formed on his lips as he met the eyes of the captain.

"Good morning, Jack." Stephen said brightly before he returned his attention to the bandage on Jack's thigh.

Groaning slightly, he propped himself up with his elbows, a task that he realized took too much of his energy in his weakened state. "How long was I out?"

Stephan peeled the rest of the white cloth away and discarded it, gently prodding at the wound with his fingers before he made a satisfactory grunt. "Three days."

This was the first time Jack had been able to see the wound and he could barely bear to think about what it had looked like three days ago. He felt lucky that he had kept his leg. It was a gaping wound, deep through his muscle and tearing at his skin. Stephan wet a rag and began to gently clean it, searching for any sign of infection before he wrapped it up again.

"I must have missed a lot." Jack sighed, feeling his arms wobble slightly from holding himself up and lowered his back to the bed.

"Unfortunately, yes. But I'll not have you running around this ship this instant. You're going to have to rest and wait." Catching the look on Jack's face, Stephen raised a finger in warning. "I mean it, Jack, Doctor's orders. You should have seen the chunk of wood that came out of your leg."

An exasperated huff left the captain's mouth as he adjusted his shoulders, feeling the cold hands of the doctor working against his bare skin as Stephan replaced the bandages with clean ones.

* * *

**A/N:** It's kind of short, but it's just setting up the plot, or one of the plot's. They'll get longer.

Thank you!


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